"Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans" by Don Brown

One of this year's award winners, "Drowned City:  Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans" by Don Brown, is a triumph.  It is a great example of how graphic novels can transmit complex concepts, well researched with high level vocabulary.  It is so well researched, in fact, that I learned a number of things I didn't know -- and I am one of the thousands of people who went down there to rebuild in the years after the disaster.  This isn't a textbook, however.  This is a story, where fact and emotion blend to create a powerful narrative.  It unfolds in a very linear way, with artwork showing the storm's formation in Africa, it's travel to the U.S. Coast, formation in the gulf, even the communities wiped out before New Orleans was impacted.  The art isn't just good, there is a tremendous emotional impact, with swirling blues and blacks spreading across double pages, evoking a sense of the open space being closed off, as the citizens of the city were, by the power of the hurricane.  Unlike AD:  New Orleans after the Deluge, the details of the days following are not glamorized nor played down.  This is the power of a really good graphic novel.  The words tell the story in clinical detail, while the images portray the pathos, desperation and agony of the human toll.  It is an excellent book, one that reminds us of a massive failure of our nation to respond to this tragedy, and one we should not forget.

"George" by Alex Gino

This short award winner details the story of George, a child who is, without a doubt, a girl.  The prose is simple and heartfelt, drawing in the reader to the challenge faced by so many.  A fourth grader, George hopes that she can get the role of Charlotte in the school play.  She believes that by appearing as a female in front of all, they can see her as she sees herself.  Throughout the first part of the book, there are aching moments, a sense of her personhood being denied, as no one around her seems to see what she knows at the core of her being.  Imagine being out in the world and treated as if no one really sees you as the person you are.  It would be like being invisible, or like living inside of a costume day in and day out.  Or both.  There were a good number of moments I simply cried at the pain she felt.  George is lucky, however, in that she has a great friend, Kelly, who is tremendously supportive of all of George's struggles, even when she is unable to articulate them.  I remembered, while reading the book, a student I knew who went through this.  First, for longer than I imagined, I struggled with the pronoun issue.  Not in what I called him, but in that moment before I referred to him, when my brain had to consciously make the change.  Then, one day recently, I saw him and there was no question.  The minute I laid eyes on him, my mind said "him."  A triumph for all.  That happens a good deal in this book, as George refers to herself with a female pronoun, while the world refers to her using male references.  It is just a small taste of the dissonance that George faces every minute during her existence.  There were a number of other things I really liked about this book -- it is real in the sense that the reactions are not what you would think and nothing is particularly clean.  The bullies aren't done away with, and George's family reacts in ways that may be unexpected, but are, in their complexity, fully human.  It's a great story, and one that nearly everyone who reads it will "get."  Brava, Alex Gino.  So glad that a person like George can come into the light.

"A Street Through Time: A 12,000-Year Walk Through History" by Steve Noon

This was a holiday gift from my mother, and, in that sense, it evokes so much that I loved as a child.  The historical element, of course, but more than that, detailed pictures and stories within stories.  Mr. Noon's artwork is "okay" but the subtle humor is terrific.  Much of the content in these complex images is explained, but some isn't.  I laughed out loud when I saw the shovel coming up through the floor of the modern day bank.  He ties one age into another through the basics -- housing, trade, eating and bathrooms.  Yes, there are images throughout showing how people of each age relieved themselves (more naughty than obscene).  It's a good tactic.  Kids always ask those sorts of questions.  The darker sides aren't glorified, but they aren't glossed over.  Heads of enemies are displayed in the far distance of one scene, rats swarm the village during plague times.  Noon also engages the reader by hiding things in the pictures -- including a time traveler that these old eyes couldn't catch, but young ones might.  This is a DK book, and like all DK titles, it is accessible, packed with facts and visually stimulating.  There is a glossary at the end as well as an index, although the best learning may come from curiosity raised within each image.  Layout is thought-through, and the progressions make sense.  My only real complaints are that the gutter sometimes obscures the image as the street becomes more crowded, and there are white lines "outlining" some of the characters and images as the tale unfolds, which seems unnecessarily artificial.  That being said, this book did "take me back" to one of my favorite activities as a child -- finding the hidden pictures in the Highlights magazines at the doctor's office.  This is one of the few books that is good to buy, rather than borrow.  Kids will be able to look, and look again, for a long time.

"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt De La Pena, Illustrated by Christian Robinson

Well, the annual awards have to come with some controversy, and a big one this year was the Newbery committee awarding the top honor to a picture book, something they haven't done since A Visit to William Blake's Inn back in the 1980s.  Note that the book also picked up Caldecott and Coretta Scott King honors, so clearly, it is well-appreciated by many.  So, the question is, do picture books merit an award given purely for literary quality?  And if so, does this book meet that literary bar?  The answers are ... I'm not sure.  Much like a graphic novel, a good picture book must have a kind of symbiosis, a marriage, between the image and the word.  Neither should be able to stand alone and the two, together, should create more than the whole.  So, yes, the words and pictures are dependent on one another, but can't that be considered a kind of literature?  Don't we talk, all the time, about Media Literacy?  What is that, if not about understanding something at a deeper level through imagery?  Then, there are the words.  Does this have the best words ever?  No, not in my humble opinion.  But they are good.  There is a flow and rhythm to this tale, a lyricism, a poetic feel without the poetry.  The back and forth between the Grandma and the boy has a rhythm, too, and that rhythm is a big part of why the story "sticks."  There is imagery in the words, as well, imagery which is echoed and reinforced by the pictures, slightly evocative of Jacob Lawrence in their simplicity and social commentary.  All of this is to say that critics seem to be dismissing this book at face value, but one must look more deeply to see the subtleties that make it a rich tale which the award committees appreciated.  Look at the messages within the messages -- the personalities on the bus, the fact that even though this pair has less than others, they still give their time to help those who are worse off.  It is America's story.  This is a book written by a Hispanic man, illustrated by an African American man, which shows the diversity of life that is typical in the inner city.  How could the committees ignore such a tale?  If you aren't a fan, look again, and look deeper.  This one requires multiple reads to truly see all the layers in a book that is far more than just an easy read.

"The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

Took me a long time to get to this uber-popular book, but I didn't want to take it out of the hands of the devoted readers, and it does take me a good long while to read something of this length.  I can see the appeal.  It is a very complex story, which works on many levels, and the writing is strong.  Compare it to any number of books, Westing Game, Greenglass House, Splendors and Glooms, and there are similarities, but it is completely unique as well.  Four unusual children are tapped to solve a mystery which has a bit of life peril involved.  While not exactly a page turner (although chapters are nicely short), the stakes do go up (and up and up) so, for me, it was about seeing if the children triumphed through their adversities.  The characters are also very engaging.  Every single character is drawn with depth and most of the main characters are the kind you would either identify with or want to be friends with.  Despite the fantastical circumstances, these people felt very real.  There is an "otherness" to this book which makes it feel like a different world.  I often associate this with books written in England or Australia, but this is purebred American.  The drawings at the beginning of each chapter reinforce the unreality with a style that is more caricature than real, but this only adds to a sense of light amusement which plays throughout.  The chapter headings are arch, and there is some serious satire of modern society -- government, news organizations and more -- embedded in the plotline.  Not sure that every reader will get all of the subtext, but it means a wide range of readers can appreciate the story regardless of age.  A real winner.  I can see why it became so hot, so fast.